You know, if negative emotions actually spawned drooly monsters, that might actually do some good for trade chat and the forums. Bring on the Sha of Trolling! the Sha of Epeen Envy! The Sha of Chuck Norris Jokes That Were Dumb Like Twelve Years Ago Already! The Sha of Blaming Ghostcrawler For Everything! The Sha of Sneering At Casual Players! The Sha of Whining That Blizzard Has A Horde Bia— wait, what’s that thing gnawing on my kneecaps..?? YAAAAAHHHH!!!

November 23, 2012

(I’ll admit, the comic is a little angrier than usual this week. Sorry about that. I’ll try to swing back around to silly next week.)

Okay, so the game is just a little heavy-handed about what an awful thing we players did in Jade Forest. And yes, what happened to the Jade Serpent statue is pretty terrible, but we players didn’t do that. And I don’t just mean that we were up on a rock with Cho for the final quest, I mean there is absolutely no way in which we players can avert or alter the outcome. Blizzard set up the story and then wants to make us feel bad for how it turned out.

It’s part of a larger problem this expansion. “Oh, look, it’s crazy crazy Garrosh and warmongering Jaina! Don’t you just feel awful about the senseless war between the Alliance and the Horde? Now, go farm up some honor.” “Welcome to Pandaria, where negative emotions turn into slavering monsters. Aw, look at the poor innocent panda people whose lives you’re ruining every time you evoke the sha. Now, here’s a bunch of quests to go smash and slaughter things.” I’m getting a little tired of being Blizzard’s moral yo-yo.

And why is Blizzard a big blue dot? Dunno. I needed somebody Gord could talk to and that’s what came to mind.

After the aoe-fest of late Wrath dungeons, stepping into Cataclysm dungeons was like being Wile E. Coyote riding an ACME rocket straight into a brick wall. It took some time and painful experience to get used to using our crowd control buttons. Now in Pandaria, those buttons are feeling pretty lonely again.